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The company considers it likely that the advanced-stage, 100 percent-owned Blue Moon zinc project on 525 acres, in the Foothills Massive Sulphide Belt of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, will yield a significant ore deposit at the depths of the exploration, where small-scale mining took place during World War II. Soil anomalies near the mine foster hope that there are additional deposits to be found along strike of the zone.

The possibility is an attractive one, given the market factors that drove the London zinc exchange to a decade-high price of more than $3,000 per metric ton in October and a nine-and-a-half-year high on the Shanghai Futures Exchange of more than $4,000 per metric ton.

The principal factors causing a price jump is the low level of the mineral stockpile — the lowest in nearly a decade. For decades the low price of zinc led to the shuttering of projects like Blue Moon’s, but demand has spiraled upward during the past decade, led largely by consumers in China.

A large driver for zinc demand is the metal’s use in galvanizing steel and iron (http://nnw.fm/4Zo3H). An analysis by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group found that demand for zinc grew by 1.14 percent during the first five months of 2017, with mine output rising 6.3 percent and refined metal output up 0.4 percent, according to a report in Mining Weekly (http://nnw.fm/dRM9e). Usage of the refined metal in the United States fell in 2016 but then rebounded with a 19 percent climb, according to the report.

The Blue Moon project will be mined underground. The company has a resource of some 3.7 million indicated tons of ore graded at 8.33 percent zinc equivalent, which could yield about 377 million pounds of the metal at that level and more than 4 million inferred tons more with a grade of 7.84 percent zinc equivalence.

The Blue Moon project also boasts silver, gold, and copper as byproducts. Blue Moon has contracted a preliminary economic assessment of the project that should be completed during the first quarter of 2018.

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